Medicare to Partially Resume Workmens Comp Collection Letters

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)  has announced that its recovery of benefits contractor will resume sending Medicare collection letters to attorneys in workmens compensation cases. The practice was suspended recently following the entry of a Federal Court Order enjoining some recovery practices. 

CMS has a statutory obligation to seek recovery of medical benefits that it has paid to beneficiaries in those matters where Medicare is not the primary insurance carrier responsible for medical care. CMS seeks to recovery the money that it has apid from the workers' compensation insurance carrier. The process has evolved where in CMS sends notice to the attorneys in the pending workers' compensation claim seeking reimbursement at the time of resolution of the workers' compensation claim.

The Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Contractor (MSPRC) is contracted to issue a letter know as the "Review of the Rights and Responsibility Letter" (RAR). The MSPRC has announced that the RAR letters will resume in some format on or about June 10, 2010.

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